Strawberries and hammer dulcimers...

It´s been a while since I have had the time or inspiration to sit and write, but I have to say, there have been good things happening here in Spain. Last Wednesday we had an improptu dance party in the house with a few of new friends, Josh and Nick, who I met in the Alpujarra, and Ben, who is living with Annette and José. We ate a big, delicious meal, played lots of music, and drank several boxes of wine.
We then (pretending to be real Granadinos) stayed out till all hours at this really great bar, Pata Palo, where the music was absolutely delicious and forced us to dance. I like the nightlife. I like to boooogggiee... When we got back home, Nick and Josh demolished the leftovers (actually, most of it ended up in their beards), we laughed a lot, and then every one sort of found a happy cacoon spot to sleep. Mine was the happiest, but maybe I´ll go into that later.

On Saturday, I headed back up to the mountains with seven students who were willing to fly by the seats of their pants on the pilot trip. It was a great group. I spent a lot of the trip with Lauren, who is blind. She put a lot of faith in me to get her up and down little the precarious trail to the toilet, played a mean recorder during our late-night jam session, and picked strawberries with me for the first time. We had a traditional basketweaving workshop with Paco, who is from the house above Mathis´ and Mariann´s, and has never really left his little valley. I am officially proficient at plaiting with 7 and 9 strands, but he tells me now I have to learn 13. He assures me it´s the easiest thing in the world, but I don´t know if my attention span is that long.
In the evening after dinner, we had the chance for the students to learn from Mathis about CSAs (http://www.localharvest.org/), biodynamic farming (http://www.biodynamics.com/), and Steiner schools (http://www.steinerwaldorf.org.uk/). The WWOOFers (http://www.wwoof.org/) and kids joined in the conversation. Then we dropped the serious stuff and played music for a couple hours. Pretty much every one joined in. I got to play a Hammer Dulcimer, which could definitely keep me occupied for many hours. We ended with Leo (a WWOOfer from Wales) and I playing a dulcimer/ukelele/voice duet as the fire died down. Yep. Rough life.

The students learned a lot and got to see with their own eyes a family that lives pretty much off-the-grid in a 500 year-old house (and is REALLY happy doing it). It really is this sort of strange Eden. Only, an Eden where we made pizza with fresh organic veggies from the garden and munched on fresh herbs from around the table.

I think I am headed to Morocco this weekend for the last trip of the semester. I am excited because I have missed it, but I have had such a peaceful weekends the past couple weeks that the thought of leading a trip there seems like braving a hurricane! I look forward to seeing my friends and eating amazing food and being in Rabat. It´s a phenomenal city. For now, I have work to do top get ready, so I should quit this blogging stuff! It´s too much of a distraction...

Be good. Love H